#eli

To whom can I expose the urgency of my own passion?…There is nobody—here among these grey arches, and moaning pigeons, and cheerful games and tradition and emulation, all so skilfully organised to prevent feeling alone. ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#loneliness #social-commentary #nature

Im Gegensatz zum Tier kann ich mich über die Zwänge der Natur erheben. Ich kann Sex haben, ohne mich vermehren zu wollen. Ich kann Substanzen konsumieren, die mich für eine Weile von der sklavischen Ankettung an den Körper erlösen. Ich kann den Überlebenstrieb ignorieren und mich in Gefahr bringen, allein um den Reiz der Herausforderung willen. Dem wahren Menschen genügt das Dasein nicht, wenn es ein bloßes Hier-Sein meint. Der Mensch muss sein Dasein erfahren. Im Schmerz. Im Rausch. Im Scheitern. Im Höhenflug. Im Gefühl der vollständigen Machtfülle über die eigene Existenz. Über das eigene Leben und den eigenen Tod. Das, meine arme, vertrocknete Mia Holl, ist Liebe. ↗

— Juli Zeh

#nature

Another aspect inviting contemplation is the fact that the affective tone of any feeling depends on the type of contact that has caused its arising. Once this conditioned nature of feelings is fully apprehended, detachment arises naturally and one's identification with feelings starts to dissolve. ↗

— Anālayo

#detachment #feeling #meditation #sutra #nature

If theft is advantageous to everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn't the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had - being sorry you got caught? ↗

— Robert J. Sawyer

#darwinism #evolution #infidelity #macro-evolution #macroevolution

I’m such an alcoholic that I go to church just for communion. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#church #funny #humor #religion #funny

It's a natural progress, but still. That thing about the cow is so stupid. Do I look like a cow to you? ↗

— Meg Cabot

#nature

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#religion

The permanent misfits can find salvation only in a complete separation from the self; and they usually find it by losing themselves in the compact collectivity of a mass movement. ↗

— Eric Hoffer

#nature

Listening to people espouse beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my worldview is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in 'A Few Good Men', "I CAN handle the truth. ↗

— Michael J. Fox

#truth #men

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. ↗

— Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

#men